Resting Within
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, they do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Hebrews 3:10-12
Herein can be seen the grief of the Lord. My is it not almost like when he was challenged by the religious leaders of that day to show them a sign. I have a notion a lot of us are still seeking signs in this day in which we live today. You know, if you have not got the angel feathers and the whispers from God then there is nothing right in the house. You know how some of you do. But when our God speaks, there is work to be done. Sometimes he comes with a Word just for you. Sometimes he comes in with a breeze just to see how things are going there on your end. Sometimes he comes in the dead of the night with visions and dreams. Sometimes he makes intercession with wordless groans due to our sin. Sometimes he is silent all because we have not bothered to listen. Sometimes he comes in with the Lord in cleansing the temple. Trust me though, he has got your name and your number and so knows where you live. Somebody shout 'it's personal.' Thank God he is still working on me along with all those of his house. Imagine with all those to be found in the world our God has made time for just you and so to abide. At no time though has he come in alone. How many of you know he is not out there just plotting stuff all by himself. As in John 5, his testimony is true of himself for his witness is so. As the Father and the Son he speaks to both equally for in him are these also contained. That is why that warning not to speak against the Spirit is so frighteningly given. If he says clean up the house, you best believe you better do one and the same. See, it must be in fit state for the Father to come and abide. Speaking against the Spirit though involves just far more than himself. Instead, it reaches out affecting the Father and Son. To speak against one then in reality is speaking against all three of the Trinity, though perhaps you have not meant it that way. Here, I mean the persons of the Godhead being plainly visible so that all men are without excuse. With the excuse though comes along a rebuke so that the whole world might stand guilty before God. Yet what of it if the Spirit has turned some back to the house. Now it is for that same very reason that before him you may guiltless appear. Might well you wonder at this Spirit which has just let himself in. Is it not a picture of a marriage relationship that Christ has the with the church. Perhaps you might not see him just yet. One day though our faith made sight will be filled.
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Genesis 49:10
Spiritually speaking, Shiloh represented the coming of rest for the people of God. See, it was merely a place as in the time of Joshua 18:1-2 once before. But now the entering into the temple it had become. So too were there some without in need of the land. How these too needed the blessings of God to provide. Yet God is more than merely A collector of wishes or a measurement of our own greatest mistake. Rather, in all our sins and failures we knew there remains the rest for God's own chosen people. How many of you know the same sits empty and ready for all to possess whether chosen or no. See, such rest represents far more than just a taking at hand. Else would not the people have been counted as failed for their not entering in. Here though, like no other, is seen whether God could provide. Small wonder then in all this there remains the not knowing of God. It seems for those who depended on God to survive, who saw him daily in feeding the people, who went before all as a pillar to be found in the way, then that such a view is not just a mistake. Indeed, how many people are treated much the same way. For lack of the knowledge of God such rash decisions are made. Had you like the people only known of his power. Unto Genesis 49:10 does the Shiloh come that Abraham knew. In this the sceptre, the lawgiver, and gathering be. Could it be in all this that some have lost sight of the Lord. Such was the situation a good while later as Judges 21:19-21 would tell.
And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.
Judges 21:23
There were the children of Benjamin well-nigh cut off from the land. The issue though was hardly the wrong or the right. Instead, it had more to do with the continual err of the generations as each one knew for a time before these also had strayed. Here in Shiloh then to those who had drunk deep from such of that cup his mercy remained. How many know that though the wrath of God is poured out of earth, though we be found in the deep, though Jacob's trouble has come all at once, yet still there remains the say so of God. I can almost hear some of you now 'why has the sword gone forth from the Lord.' See the rest was not to be found in standing without but rather from the entering in. As in that time, was the rest come forth from the Lord. There on the feast days came the people to praise. So too came the damsels forth of the people. Now were these in preparation set aside in service to God. Notice how they came not with all they could bring but rather themselves and a quiet trust in the Lord. To this came a young daughter of Zion wondering how she would even find a good mate much less for Heaven to consider or answer her plea. Still though these came set apart for the Lord. How would he answer these weak and sick of the fold. Surely the good Shepherd indeed would provide, this God who is found in all things that we face. Imagine being so caught in the dance by the men of that tribe or being one of the virgins that remained of the fold. It seems that Jehovah was Jireh indeed.
And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
1 Samuel 3:21
Here have the ages moved on down until a certain woman went up as appointed to the Lord's house all alone. Along came her troubles and worries with her feeling so small. Yet still there remains the breath of the Lord. To her knees she fell amid the large crowd. To anyone else who knew not the Lord some drunk she had seemed. Indeed, was not the cup there already full to the brim. See, the priests in doing evil had worshipped themselves. For Hannah's part though she was not as she wished only some vengeance and a child to give back to the Lord. After all this time would the rest of the Lord remain to be found. Now has the departing come in as told in the text as at first. Nor has this departing involved only themselves. By this time, there remained the few last true to the Lord. The issue then was hardly the people's own lack of faith in what they could see but rather their sin. Between the sin and the faithfulness and the departing was the lack of resting now found. After all, the people should have been whole and fulfilled by the Lord. His rest it seems has come before theirs as such things in a marriage relationship so often do. See, the only problems with such is the absence of love, hope, and trust. Still though in all this troubling was found the breath Of the Spirit and the silent rushing of wind. Himself, the just, though the people neither knew nor heeded any such. How much better is it to seek him while his presence still remains in the house of the Lord.